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01/22/2006:

"Booker author's snub shakes Indian elite"

As the Booker Prize-winning author of the best-selling novel The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy is one of India's most celebrated literary exports. She has been feted around the world since the book was published eight years ago, but she has frustrated the literary establishment by refusing to write any more fiction and turning to political campaigning.

So when Roy brought out a collection of essays last year entitled The Algebra of Infinite Justice, the Indian academy of letters jumped to attention and rushed to honour her with their most prestigious literary award. The problem for the Sahitya Akademi is that Roy refuses to accept it. As a vehement anti-government campaigner, she says, she cannot accept commendation from a body with such strong ties to the Indian authorities. The problem for Roy is that the Akademi is going to honour her anyway.
independent.co.uk